Austin Harrison We are coming to the end of a year which has been hard on everyone, but few more so than our arts communities (shout out to our healthcare workers who definitely take the top spot for most rubbish year, y’all are awesome!!). On Sunday night though, you’d hardly have known how exhausted everyone is feeling. As we enter the Hannah Playhouse for this year’s Wellington Theatre Awards, the vibes are jubilant, the spirits are high and there is much to celebrate!!
Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin Isaac Martyn’s show He Māori? asks what it means to reclaim Māoritanga from a Pākehā upbringing. Returning to BATS Theatre for Tahi Festival after a sold-out first season, Martyn leads the audience on a journey of total confusion to partial understanding – weaving together elements of stand-up comedy, waiata, and theatrical performance to explore the doubt, celebration, and the complicated nature of identity.
Austin Harrison Remember sleepovers? The delirious, sugar-fuelled bonding. Being allowed to stay up past bed-time and share everything while your parents weren’t listening. Heartbreaker Productions has used that time and those memories as a playground to dance, play and laugh in their newly devised anthology Midnight Confessions – and it’s an absolute delight!
Katie Hill Ephemeral Theatre’s RAW! ASMR is a devised solo feminist clown show by Amy Atkins and, according to the programme, is the first of its kind in Aotearoa. Directed by Sara Hirsch and devised by Bethany Miller, Amy Booth, Liz Butler, and Pája Neuhöferov, the show is 45 minutes of whispered chaos, and as an avid ASMR fan, I feel ecstatic that this niche corner of YouTube content has been given some theatrical legs. While evidently a development season, RAW! ASMR is bright, fresh, and Atkins is a skilled entertainer.
Austin Harrison Wendybird is the latest theatrical outing for fast-emerging company Blue Flicker. This year they bring Prea Millar’s debut solo show to fringe – a playful reclaiming of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, from Wendy’s perspective. More than that though, it is an artful reflection on a young woman’s experience growing up in someone else’s story.
Austin Harrison Glass Town is a new offering from Knot Theatre. They’re coming in hot off the back of Bruises (Winner – Grand Design Award, NZ Fringe 2021) and a nomination for most promising emerging company at last year’s Fringe, and I am so excited to see what they will serve up, 12 months on. They say the second album is the hardest, and I’m afraid it may well be true for this production.
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